Today was just one of those days. You know, those trying to cram in a million things, time is slipping away, talking way too fast, explaining too many things at once, and letting my hectic-frazzled-craziness rub off on the kids kind of days. They are never very good days (although this one wasn't terrible or anything, but definitely not a winner). My goals for tomorrow: breathe. speak slowly. remember that we can finish things tomorrow.
It's just hard with ISATs looming not too far in the distance, parent conferences this week, and so many shortened weeks lately with inservices, conferences, and holidays. I constantly feel like I need to be moving faster than I am, and consequently rush to try and get things finished, which means we all end up a little crazy. But tomorrow, I will do my best not to let my craziness show. I will speak slowly, give clear directions, and remember that everything will get done, just maybe not at the pace I had hoped. Tomorrow I am going to daringly make time for a 15 minute read aloud after PE. I know. The audacity. 15 minutes that could be used for ISAT prep. I am going to try my very hardest, against all better judgement, to sit the kids down on the rug and read a short picture book, because honestly we need a little break.
On another note, this is the dilemma I found myself faced with this afternoon:
The kids are frantically packing up (aka I am yelling at them to clean up the room--more on that later), and one girl exclaims that her mp3 player is missing from her backpack. I have everyone check desks and backpacks "just in case" to no avail. Well, it's then that I notice my little darling who already was caught stealing not 1 but 2 cell phones from building STAFF this year is not in the room. She has already left to check out (she's on the school behavior plan). THEN I start having to not only console a crying child whose mp3 player (that she stupidly brought to school) has been stolen, monitor the cleaning of the room (see above comment about the yelling), AND quell rumors that are already spreading like wild fire that the aforementioned notorious stealer was seen over near the backpacks earlier...My oh my. And this all in the last 2 minutes before the bell.
Here is my dilemma: when I ask this particular child tomorrow if she stole the mp3 player, I'm certain the response will be absolute denial. That was, of course, the response when interrogated about the cell phones (that she did in fact take). So...what do I do then? I have no proof. The other student shouldn't have had that at school anyways. I have no idea what the next step should be, or if there should even be one. Why, when we were given "what would you do in THIS situation" scenarios in teacher class, was this type of event never among them? Thoughts? Opinions?
I of course no nothing about the family background of the accused thief - but what I've done when things have gone missing at day camp is phone parents of anybody who I've suspected. A parent is likely to notice that their child has an mp3 player that they didn't have the day before (whether or not the parent thinks this a problem varies). I've had missing/stolen items turn up this way.
ReplyDeleteYou can also try a "return this item to the office by friday and no questions will be asked, otherwise there will be consequences" policy. Thefts have been resolved that way too.
Good luck!